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Cindarians
Peaceful inhabitants of the coral reefs, the Cindarians have a halfling heritage. As halfling souls are being born into Cindarian bodies, the Cindarians maintain protection of their beloved coral reefs from dispoilers like the sahuagin. Some of them actually travel with the Choral Dragons of the sea, and help these dragons in their mission to maintain the coral reefs. Others have permanently settled down and build small permanent villages that do not look unlike halfling holes. Lately, some gnomes have transformed themselves into merfolk to study the Cindarians, and in one generation, gnomish souls are being born into Cindarian bodies as well. Personality The Cindarians' mixture of halfling and gnomish proclivities has produced a race of several extremes when it comes to personality. Many of them prefer to stay home and not venture far beyond their coral reefs , while some have inherited the inquisitive and inventive nature of the gnomes. The result is a race that likes to invent but not go anywhere when the call to adventure comes. Rare is the Cindarian that heeds the call to go on a long journey. Every once in a while, gnomish traits breed true, resulting in a merfolk Cindarian that is Cindarian from the waist down, but gnome from the waist up -- with the distinctive colored hair. As these gnomish Cindarians continue to age, they too, start suffering from the Bleaching. Society and Culture To a cindarian the cornerstone of home, family, and community is the coral reef. No cindarian abode will be far from a coral reef, and even cindarians who are forced to live separately from one still speak of the reef as home. However, with the transmigration of gnomish souls into Cindarian bodies, the race is beginning to get inquisitive and curious. Despite this, the Cindarian Race as a whole keep to the coral reefs. There isn't very much of them, actually. The race numbers only nearly one million world wide, but they have few predators thanks to their spines on their back. History Early History The Cindarian race wasn't so much an evolution into sentience, but an adaptation using Lemurian methods to the sea. The Lemurians wanted to colonize the seas. Finding that building undersea colonies was not the answer they were looking for, they turned to genetic engineering. They went to the Halflings' home world (Athas ?) and asked for volunteers to explore the seas. Several halflings who enjoy exploring the seas signed up and traveled through the Dragon Gate. Being fleshcrafters themselves, these halflings were no stranger to genetic engineering. Over time, the Lemurians altered the halflings to take on the Cindarian body plan -- a merfolk using the lion fish template. The experiments were successful in this regard, and the Cindarians were soon colonizing the seas. It was not long that the Cindarians have taken a liking to the coral reefs and the race congregated there. The Deluge and the Chalcolithic Age Thanks to the great Deluge, and during the Copper Age, several new halflings (and halfling souls) came through the Dragon Gate along with gnomes from the planets Golarion and Abeir-Toril (the Forgotten Realms). The Gnomes used their high technology to build submarines to explore the seas of their new home Lemurias. Some of them used magic make themselves look like merpeople, so they explored the coral reefs. After meeting and interacting with the Cindarians, and some romance later, the two races interbred and soon Half-gnomes with aquatic traits appeared. The half-gnomes then adapted to the coral reefs and intermixed with the population and over time, the traits were lost, or as you see below, submerged. The Bronze Age Bronze resists corrosion much better in seawater than its softer but more durable counterpart, Steel. During the Bronze Age, many artifacts were lost at sea, so the Cindarians -- along with the Seafolk -- used bronze. Eventually the merpeople learned how to make bronze and they were making bronze using undersea forges and materials gathered from the sea or with trade with other undersea races that can withstand the twilight benthic sea bottom. At the end of the Bronze Age, a new sub-race of Cindarians appeared as the gnomish traits resurfaced. Called Gnomish Cindarians, they had the upper bodies of gnomes, with the distinctive hair; and the lower bodies and spines of a lionfish. The Early Iron Age The Early Iron Age saw man build better ships and better designs. It also saw the design of the compass and the design of sails for better crossing. However, the iron they used rusted in the seas, so the merfolk continued to rely on bronze as their metal of choice. Alexander's Empire During the middle Iron Age, Alexander created his empire. Again, ships were little better in their designs. And the Cindarians and other races of the sea continued to rely on bronze. However, new metals and materials were coming into vogue out of Alexandria, plus the Alchemist profession grew by leaps and bounds. Baggies were designed (underwater potion bottles) plus other implements. The races under the sea discovered glass and a way to make it. Thanks to the gnomish ingenuity that is in the Cindarian race, however, the merfolk under the sea learned how to protect bronze better using paints. But the paints had to be applied and left out in the open air to dry before they could be of use. Noteable Cindarians Sources Category:Races under the Sea Category:Cindarian Category:Merfolk Category:Underseas Category:The World Category:World